×
GreekEnglish

×
  • Politics
  • Diaspora
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Cooking
Tuesday
13
Jan 2026
weather symbol
Athens 4°C
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • World
  • Diaspora
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Mediterranean Cooking
  • Weather
Contact follow Protothema:
Powered by Cloudevo
> World

Switzerland: 64-year-old American woman the first to use the suicide chamber

"I believe she lost consciousness two minutes after the procedure began and eventually died after five minutes," the chamber's creator said

Newsroom September 25 08:14

A 64-year-old US woman is reportedly the first person to use the suicide chamber in Switzerland.

According to the capsule’s creator, Philip Nietzsche who has been nicknamed “Dr Death”, the woman entered the chamber and “almost immediately pressed the button” to end her life.

..an idyllic peaceful death in a Swiss forest where The Last Resort @tlrswiss used the Sarco device to help a US woman have the death she wanted..Lees dit artikel op de Volkskrant https://t.co/6DbKfmzYnC

– Philip Nitschke (@philipnitschke) September 24, 2024

He had previously described that anyone who enters the chamber and presses the button releases nitrogen gas which causes hypoxia and eventually death. It takes a total of ten minutes to complete the gruesome process with the final phrase heard being “If you want to die, press this button.”

The chamber was set in a wooded area in northern Switzerland so the American woman could see the trees and the sky in her final moments.

“Everything happened as we expected. I believe she lost consciousness two minutes after the procedure started and finally died after five minutes,” Nietzsche told Dutch media. Describing what happened, he added that “we saw small contractions and muscle movements in her arms but she was probably already unconscious.”

The US woman, who was reportedly a mother of two, appears to have suffered from a very serious illness with severe pain and “had wanted to die for at least two years.”

Officers who rushed to the area when they were informed of the use of the suicide chamber found the woman’s lifeless body and arrested, among others, the manager of the Last Resort company that operates Sarco, two lawyers, and a newspaper photographer.

The prosecutor in the canton of Schaffhausen said the creators of Sarco had been warned in writing not to use the chamber.

>Related articles

The local judicial authorities decided to detain the owner of the bar in Crans-Montana for three months

“We know nothing about Alice; I wanted to go in to look for her but they wouldn’t let me”: The brother of the missing 15-year-old Greek girl speaks to Proto Thema

15-year-old Greek girl missing after tragedy at club in Crans-Montana

According to Dutch newspaper de Volksrant, the woman had given Last Resort the green light on video to go ahead with the procedure, saying she wanted to end her life.

According to the same source in the 4-minute video, the woman reportedly said she had wanted to die for two years after being diagnosed with a serious illness. In the same video, the woman reportedly said her two sons were “100% with me” on the assisted suicide.

“An idyllic peaceful death in a Swiss forest where Last Resort used the Sarco device to help a US woman have the death she wanted,” Nietzsche wrote in his X post.

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

#chamber#suicide#switzerland
> More World

Follow en.protothema.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news

See all the latest News from Greece and the World, the moment they happen, at en.protothema.gr

> Latest Stories

Motorcycle rider arrested in Thessaloniki for driving 128 km/h in residential area

January 12, 2026

Mattel releases the first Barbie with autism, watch video

January 12, 2026

Farmers’ unions cancel meeting with Mitsotakis, plan escalation with new roadblocks

January 12, 2026

Shark attack on woman in Brazil: ‘I knew it had bitten me’, watch video

January 12, 2026

The 15 Greek islands that stand out for holidays in 2026, according to Conde Nast Traveller

January 12, 2026

Agatha Christie’s 1958 visit to the Acropolis captured in unpublished photo

January 12, 2026

Russia declares war on the Ecumenical Patriarch: “He is dismantling the Body of the Church, has nationalist and neo-nazi allies”

January 12, 2026

Video: The “battle” of the Skopelitis with the waves in the Aegean

January 12, 2026
All News

> Greece

Motorcycle rider arrested in Thessaloniki for driving 128 km/h in residential area

The Thessaloniki Traffic Police also arrested another motorcyclist for performing dangerous maneuvers

January 12, 2026

Farmers’ unions cancel meeting with Mitsotakis, plan escalation with new roadblocks

January 12, 2026

The 15 Greek islands that stand out for holidays in 2026, according to Conde Nast Traveller

January 12, 2026

Video: The “battle” of the Skopelitis with the waves in the Aegean

January 12, 2026

Coordination Committee of Thessaly’s “hardline” roadblocks meets; Trip to Athens for meeting with Mitsotakis in doubt

January 12, 2026
Homepage
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION POLICY COOKIES POLICY TERM OF USE
Powered by Cloudevo
Copyright © 2026 Πρώτο Θέμα